unbroken (unexpected series)

Chapter 5

“We all stepped up, knew you were having a hard time but figured as Oakley grew older and Ben too, that you’d see what you were missing with them… Oakley was smart and I told you Grant! Told you for the things she can remember, the facts that girl can pick up and mention later in conversation at her age… no way she didn’t remember what happened that night.”

“I don’t remember Uncle Grant…” he said sadly, “Then when you finally do come around, start taking interest, its not because you realize you’ve got two wonderful kids that need you, its because you met a woman that was barely holding on.” He starts pointing out my faults, my mind still on Norine and Bens’ words.

“My own goddamn profession, you tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about… ‘Don’t you think you’re moving fast?’ remember I asked you that. Remember what you told me? ‘Oakley and Ben need a mother…’ They need a mother, what they needed was a father. At every turn, you cut that poor girl down, changed her whole world, and didn’t even consider what she was going through. Then… she openly told you she didn’t want Sarah and Amelia around-”

“I had already asked Sarah and Amelia to live with us, what did you want me to do?” I shout back.

“PUT OAKLEY AND BEN FIRST!” he shouts right back, “Protect your kids…” he said sadly and I know it’s killing him. I know what’s killing him.

“Do you know how bad I want kids? How badly Julia wants to have my kid but I can’t give that to her? And you have that… you have two beautiful children… and – and one hates herself enough to take her own life and the other one… you don’t even know how he feels about his own mother?” he waves his hand at me, shaking his head from side to side furiously.

“You had this wall put up… you think kids don’t realize situations they are in? That they don’t become resilient based on the feelings around them, especially Oakley? You were all Oakley had left; she wouldn’t bring up her mother because it hurt you to talk about Norine…”

“Do you know how pathetic Ben sounds right now and its because you did that to those kids… Oakley may be able to remember, you know she was – we had her tested and was told she was a gifted child. Especially when it came to her memory and speech, but she can’t remember too much about Norine. For all these years, she’s probably been telling that boy the same thing over and over again when you more than anyone would know about them but you just don’t?”

“Oakley – she tried to hold on even though she was miserable because of you and Ben. She told Ben it was okay to love Sarah and Amelia because she knew the truth, she knew how you felt. She’s a child. You’re the adult. You were supposed to be putting her first, instead you grieved for a woman that you thought walked away from you, then bring one in and what? You just let her walk all over Oakley’s mothers memory…”

“Oakley thinks that her mother died that night…” I whisper as I find something to sit on before I collapse.

“Yeah and while she thinks her mother is dead, the woman you brought into the house is walking all over her memory, calling Norine names and changing wall colors, throwing out all the things that Oakley had left. I’m not even going to mention the way you and Sarah treat those girls…” he snorted.